Tuesday, June 15, 2010

HOLIDAYS IN HELL by P.J. O'Rourke is a laugh-out-loud journey through some of the most bizarre places you'd expect to find a travel writer. The often eccentric O'Rourke takes his travel junkie readers through 1980's El Salvador (for Christmas Vacation), the war zone of Beirut; he spent a month on the very dangerous US/Mexico border, and if that wasn't cynical enough, O'Rourke writes in the same breath about Epcot Center in Disneyworld. Nearly all of the places O'Rourke goes, (which included Korea, Poland, Russia, Harvard, Lebanon, South Africa, and Nicaragua), had experienced some form of major distress at the time of his visit. Nevertheless, throughout the entire read, the anti-travel book Holidays in Hell displays an incredible whit, while at the same time, giving its readers an honest point of view. And even though this book was written in the 80's, you will find that most of these locations still haven't changed much.

P.J. O'Rourke is widely known as a conservative political writer, for "The Economist" among other publications. But fear not if you think the book will be politically correct. With chapter titles such as "The Holyland––God's Monkey House," you can rest assured political correctness is out the window.

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